Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2020
Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics; Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Abstract
Thermal sterilization is generally avoided for 3-D printed components because of the relatively low deformation temperatures for common thermoplastics used for material extrusion-based additive manufacturing. 3-D printing materials required for high-temperature heat sterilizable components for COVID-19 and other applications demands 3-D printers with heated beds, hot ends that can reach higher temperatures than polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hot ends and heated chambers to avoid part warping and delamination. There are several high temperature printers on the market, but their high costs make them inaccessible for full home-based distributed manufacturing required during pandemic lockdowns. To allow for all these requirements to be met for under $1000, the Cerberus – an open source three-headed self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) was designed and tested with the following capabilities: i) 200 °C-capable heated bed, ii) 500 °C-capable hot end, iii) isolated heated chamber with 1 kW space heater core and iv) mains voltage chamber and bed heating for rapid start. The Cereberus successfully prints polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) and polyetherimide (PEI, ULTEM) with tensile strengths of 77.5 and 80.5 MPa, respectively. As a case study, open source face masks were 3-D printed in PEKK and shown not to warp upon widely home-accessible oven-based sterilization.
Publication Title
HardwareX
Recommended Citation
Skrzypczak, N.,
Tanikella, N.,
&
Pearce, J.
(2020).
Open source high-temperature RepRap for 3-D printing heat-sterilizable PPE and other applications.
HardwareX,
8.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00130
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/2641
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Included in
Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons, Materials Science and Engineering Commons, Mechanical Engineering Commons
Publisher's Statement
© 2020 The Author(s). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00130